1. Field of the Invention
A crop pickup device for use in association with an auger construction for harvesting valuable seed crops such as sesame seed, various types of grass seeds, spice seeds, mustard seeds and the like. The crop pickup device is used in association with a harvesting machine having an auger thereon and picks up dried plants with seeds attached thereto from a windrow with the pickup device including a rotatable drum or cylinder with pickup teeth thereon associated with a rake plate or notched stripping panel associated with the pickup teeth to effectively strip the plants from the pickup teeth and collect and guide any seeds which may fall from the plants into the conveyor of the harvesting machine. A transverse manifold with a rearwardly facing slot-like opening is located forwardly of the pickup drum and teeth to prevent the plants from rolling forwardly when they are engaged by the pickup teeth and a pair of side blowers discharge air laterally inwardly which also prevent the plants from rolling forwardly and keep the windrow from fanning out or rolling outside of the pickup drum and teeth. The stripping panel is constructed of a plastic along with the pickup teeth which provides self-lubricating qualities to enable a close fitting relation between the teeth and slots. The area of the panel having the slots therein is upwardly inclined and the area between the slots is recessed to form a longitudinal groove-like structure to guide seeds rearwardly toward the auger of the harvesting machine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of crop pickup devices are known in which crops deposited in windrows are picked-up and harvested. In harvesting certain crops, the plants are quite dry and brittle and the seeds have a tendency to easily fall from the plant. To avoid substantial loss of seeds, the dried plants are usually cut by hand and placed in a windrow by hand to avoid loss of seeds due to the conventional cutting and windrowing operation. The following U.S. Pat. Nos. relate to this field of endeavor.
1,134,443 PA1 2,710,516 PA1 2,990,019 PA1 3,073,098 PA1 3,165,874 PA1 3,193,995 PA1 3,456,652 PA1 3,665,687 PA1 3,693,331 PA1 3,720,050 PA1 3,760,573 PA1 3,828,531 PA1 3,964,245 PA1 4,364,222 PA1 4,406,112 PA1 4,730,444
The above patents disclose various structures in which a stream of air is associated with the crop pickup head of a harvester to facilitate crop pickup and conveyance. U.S. Pat. No. 4,730,444 relates to a crop pickup mechanism for use with a harvester to pickup dry plants with seeds by forming an upper and lower air seal with the upper air seal being disposed forwardly and above a rotating pickup drum and the bottom air seal being disposed rearwardly of and below the pickup drum with a downwardly and forwardly inclined slotted rake plate or stripping plate 6 with a plurality of air nozzles and other structural components facilitating crop pickup. However, this patent and none of the others listed above disclose a structure equivalent to the present invention.